Nebraska Football: Matt Rhule going old school with first NU fall camp

The Nebraska football team’s coaches are going to be taking a book out of ‘Remember The Titans’ when they kick off fall camp.

Since Matt Rhule arrived in Lincoln, he’s talked a lot about how he wants to help the Nebraska football program find the swagger and toughness that was a part of the team’s identity for decades. He’s been talking the talk so far, it looks like he’s going to walk the walk when fall camp rolls around.

Rhule announced on Monday that when the Nebraska football team reports to camp on July 30, they will also be reporting to Selleck Dorm for a kind of old-school approach to preparing for the season. The entire team and coaches will be living in the dorm for two weeks. The coaching staff staying there is really the old-school cherry on the cupcake.

While fans of the Disney football movie, “Remember the Titans” might remember that Denzel Washington’s high school coaching character did the same thing as a way to build unity, Rhule made it clear to HuskerOnline that this isn’t just a showy spectacle in order to grab headlines. He truly believes it’s important to do this, at least for his first Nebraska football squad.

"“In today’s society, sometimes you get pulled in all these different directions. We are doing what we do for each other as a team, and we are doing it for the University of Nebraska. So being on campus and being together is symbolic and I think it will be fun. There’s a lot of work to be done, so for the coaches and the players to all be together and sequestered for a little bit, it will be good.”"

Nebraska football team moving in together at the beginning of camp

It’s a safe bet that there are going to be some people who believe this move is more a gimmick than anything else. However, to me, it just seems to be something he’s trying to get a team that is going to have a lot of new faces (including new coaches) all bonding and getting to know each other quickly.

Considering the Nebraska football team will report on July 30, have its first practice on July 31 and then play their first game just a month later, it’s important the team come together quickly.